A surprise for the Board of Governors of Episcopal Life -- reorganization and now an advisory committee to ENS. Did anyone on the Governors see that coming? UPDATE: From Scott Gunn, who used to be a "governor"
We had a meeting (in person, I hasten to emphasize) in Chicago this past fall. The Board was there, along with the Director of Communication of the Episcopal Church. Katie Sherrod from Executive Council came too. We had frank — and positive — discussions about our hopes and expectations. We got into the same chapter, if not quite on the same page. Then over the past couple of weeks, we emailed around some draft language to ensure that we could agree on a mandate.
From a letter to the church from the Executive Council:
Key resolutions adopted by Council at this meeting include the following:
• Resolution supporting the goal of achieving a just and lasting peace in Afghanistan free of terrorism and foreign occupation.
• Resolution reaffirming support for Colombian people and refugees adversely affected by their country's internal armed conflict.
• Resolution expressing deep solidarity and continuing long term support for the recovery and reconstruction of Haiti with an emphasis on honoring the authority and autonomy of the Haitian leaders and people.
• Resolution challenging The Episcopal Church to raise an extra-budgetary sum of at least $10 million, approximately equal to a tithe of the church's budget for the final two years of the 2010-2012 triennium for the long-term rebuilding of the Diocese of Haiti.
• Resolution calling upon the President of the United States and the Congress to press the State of Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip and recognizing that the use of force, violence or arbitrary power by Israelis or Palestinians to determine the outcome of this conflict must be condemned absolutely.
• Resolution reconstituting the Board of Governors of Episcopal Life into the Episcopal News Service Advisory Committee.
• Resolutions addressing a large variety of shareholder resolutions studied and recommended by the Standing Commission on Corporate Social Responsibility.
• Resolution adopting a revised budget for 2010.
• Resolution adopting a Strategic Plan for the Executive Council and forming a new Executive Council Committee on Strategic Planning that will oversee and report on progress towards implementation of the Strategic Plan.
5 comments:
Firing union workers and hiring non-union substitutes at 815 really takes the wind out of my sails.
OT. Good op-ed article in today's L.A. Times - Genetics and Proposition 8: Human sexual orientation has deep biological roots. It's one of the most cogent writings on the subject I've seen in the popular press. It begins:
There was an elephant in the San Francisco courtroom where lawyers contested the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California law that prohibits the marriage of same-sex couples. One key issue should influence every aspect of the Perry vs. Schwarzenegger proceedings yet remained unspoken: What makes people gay? Is it a choice or is it innate?
Most geneticists consider sexual orientation a phenotype -- namely, an observable set of properties that varies among individuals. Although physical phenotypes like height and weight are easier to quantify, behavioral phenotypes are intensely studied in animals and humans. Research from many directions leads to a strong conclusion: Human sexual orientation has deep biological roots.
Moreover, the empirical evidence for the role of genetics in human sexual orientation has been quietly but steadily mounting over the last 15 years. Studies of twins -- the mainstay of quantitative human genetics -- have been conducted on large populations in three countries. The results unambiguously demonstrate that heritability plays a major role in sexual orientation and far outweighs shared environmental factors such as education or parenting.
Thank you Primrose. That is an excellent, excellent article by two prominent geneticists.
I am thinking of writing a long primer in genetics along these lines for GMC, using Blogger's new "pages" feature.
I meant to identify the authors of the L.A. Times article, whom IT characterizes as "two prominent geneticists." The article identifies them as follows:
"Dean Hamer is a molecular biologist who works on human genetics and HIV prevention and is the author of scientific books, including 'The Science of Desire.' Michael Rosbash is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor at Brandeis University who studies circadian rhythms."
Dylan Breuer has more on the workers at her blog here
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